4 huge changes Steelers new GM Omar Khan should make in 2022
By Andrew Falce
Steelers UDFA’s
An area that the Steelers and Colbert really fell off from was landing top names as undrafted free agents after the draft. The league does “regulate” this procedure once the draft concludes. Teams can only give so much money in the form of a signing bonus to undrafted free agents. That said, teams have worked around this by guaranteeing portions of these contracts.
The Steelers do a poor job of managing either of these elements post-draft. While they had that pool of signing bonus money that the league implements (that number was nearly 170k this season), they only spent 115k. At the bare minimum, they should be making the most of the meager amount of signing bonus money they can offer.
What would make more sense is guaranteeing portions of contracts like almost every other team does. Sure, if that player gets cut you have to eat that money, but the little bit of dead cap is worth the potential of actually landing some exciting undrafted free agents. This won’t break the bank, but it will instead make the Steelers a better landing spot for the top undrafted options.
Interesting to note is that the Eagles were one of the more aggressive teams when it came to handing out undrafted free agent contracts this past year. Of the top four most guaranteed money to undrafted free agents, the Eagles handed out three of those deals. Hopefully, Andy Weidl can bring a similar mantra to the Steelers.